Advertising Week Europe is in full swing, with our very own Iain Tait speaking at The POKE Brilliant Lectures this afternoon. We’ve been making the rounds of various talks since Monday, including Heather Andrew’s session on Creativity & The Brain yesterday. A dispatch from our very own Paulo, who attended:

Heather Andrew's talk was about the tiny things brands can do to help improve the chances of consumers remembering their ads in the long run. The brain doesn’t have the capacity to remember many things, storing only what it deems necessary. With that in mind, brands have to find ways of making sure their ads emotionally resonate in the right ways so our brains naturally remember them. This isn’t a substitute for creativity, but a list of considerations brands can use to help optimise the original ideas creative agencies come up with. W+K's work was all over the opening mood film — always nice to see.

Pick up a copy of the latest issue of shots for a feature on our own Head of Production, Danielle Stewart (‘The Wizard of W+K’). Learn a little bit more about her career journey, from art buying out of St Martin’s School of Art to working her ‘sorcery’ on integrated projects here at W+K London. In the piece, she also shares thoughts and provides insights into the role of an agency producer, as in the following excerpt:

“An agency producer is there to facilitate the creative idea on behalf of the agency and the brand – but without alienating their production counterparts,” she explains. “The production process should be based on a team mentality – I think that’s the only way to get a brilliant end product. Each person (producer) has to remain true to their own team’s wishes – whether that be the director’s team, the sound team, the post house, etc., but as long as everyone remains, open, honest and transparent throughout – you should be able to overcome all hurdles together.”

Bonus incentive to read: find out what Danielle would be doing were she not at the production helm. (Hint: it involves covert operations.)